NZers and Aussies: Switching it up

[Paxter]

Good to see you posting again Ser Cam - a ghost from forums past :P.

Speaking of ghosts, I wonder where @gryphon strike is these days?

Sideshow: I assume Bullock is going to be announced as RBA governor. Dutton seems to vehemently oppose the other frontrunners. Lowe will not get a second term, I think for his clunky communication as much as actual monetary policy decisions. 

 

[The Anti-Targ]

On 6/30/2023 at 3:44 PM, Ser Camaris said:

Greetings, my Antipodean peeps! Great to see that this thread is still going on in some form!

Was wondering how many people there are in New Zealand who might interested in a catch up? Agrivhaine and I will be there in early August and I was thinking of maybe having a open dinner/drinks on one of our nights in each of Wellington and Auckland to catch up with anyone who is around? I've been out of the loop for a while, though!

Anyway, hope life is treating you all well. :-)

I've never met anyone from here IRL, and I don't know why I feel nervous about doing it (part of it is being an introvert no doubt). Unfortunately I don't live in Wellington anymore, but my work is still technically based there and I am in town every week. If timing works out I would be down for an initially nervous and awkward, but hopefully eventually fun and interesting meet up.

[Paxter]

12 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I've never met anyone from here IRL, and I don't know why I feel nervous about doing it (part of it is being an introvert no doubt). Unfortunately I don't live in Wellington anymore, but my work is still technically based there and I am in town every week. If timing works out I would be down for an initially nervous and awkward, but hopefully eventually fun and interesting meet up.

@Ser Camaris was among the first boarders I met in person. I can attest to his kindness, patience and humility.

@Stubby took my board virginity though. He was gentle.

Oh and the Government has made its move. Insider Bullock gets the nod and will be our first female Governor. Lowe takes the fall though didn't really do anything more wrong than any other central banker or economist globally.

Edited July 14, 2023 by Paxter

[The Anti-Targ]

11 minutes ago, Paxter said:

@Ser Camaris was among the first boarders I met in person. I can attest to his kindness, patience and humility.

@Stubby took my board virginity though. He was gentle.

Oh and the Government has made its move. Insider Bullock gets the nod and will be our first female Governor. Lowe takes the fall though didn't really do anything more wrong than any other central banker or economist globally.

I get to Canada about once a year, for work, but limited to Ottawa unfortunately. It would be nice to meet come Canada folks one day. I now have family-in-law living there since my son got married, so maybe one day I'll make a social call to Canada.

[Jeor]

On 7/14/2023 at 12:22 PM, Paxter said:

@Ser Camaris was among the first boarders I met in person. I can attest to his kindness, patience and humility.

@Stubby took my board virginity though. He was gentle.

Oh and the Government has made its move. Insider Bullock gets the nod and will be our first female Governor. Lowe takes the fall though didn't really do anything more wrong than any other central banker or economist globally.

In my single days I met a few Boarders, though I think I only went to about 2-3 events - but they were all great!

Bullock is a good choice for the RBA. Lowe will never be forgiven for the error of saying rates would stay down until 2024, and that one error has cost him dearly and would have made his continuation publicly untenable. I think most people would agree he made the right policy decisions even if his communication wasn't great.

So with him being replaced, I think Bullock is a good choice both for morale of the organisation itself and for the change she'll be able to bring as an insider. While most people think an outsider is the best person to drive change, for an institution like the RBA which is heavily staffed by careerists and RBA lifers, you really need a respected insider to do the heavy lifting.

[Paxter]

On 7/13/2023 at 10:37 PM, The Anti-Targ said:

I get to Canada about once a year, for work, but limited to Ottawa unfortunately. It would be nice to meet come Canada folks one day. I now have family-in-law living there since my son got married, so maybe one day I'll make a social call to Canada.

Ottawa is an...interesting place to live. Not my cup of tea but some people seem to like it. If you ever make it to Toronto, let me know.

Meanwhile, support for everyone's (least?) favorite constitutional amendment has officially collapsed. The latest Newspoll was quite shocking. This one is bordering on a lost cause now. I think I would probably prefer that it not proceed at this point. 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Paxter

[Ser Camaris]

On 7/14/2023 at 12:10 PM, The Anti-Targ said:

I've never met anyone from here IRL, and I don't know why I feel nervous about doing it (part of it is being an introvert no doubt). Unfortunately I don't live in Wellington anymore, but my work is still technically based there and I am in town every week. If timing works out I would be down for an initially nervous and awkward, but hopefully eventually fun and interesting meet up.

Don't worry, I completely get social anxiety and nervousness. Completely. But, if you are up for it - and I would get it if you weren't 100% - I'd love to catch up. :-)

[Ser Camaris]

On 7/14/2023 at 12:22 PM, Paxter said:

@Ser Camaris was among the first boarders I met in person. I can attest to his kindness, patience and humility.

@Stubby took my board virginity though. He was gentle.

Oh and the Government has made its move. Insider Bullock gets the nod and will be our first female Governor. Lowe takes the fall though didn't really do anything more wrong than any other central banker or economist globally.

I think that is about the nicest thing you've ever said to me. I'm blushing.

[JGP]

That wasn't a mean hearted laugh btw, Cam [just in case] I laughed because you blushing over that was believable. 

Good to read you, bro.

<--- Jeordhi

[karaddin]

Watch out AT, when I met people off the board I met my wife and unless I'm misremembering you've already got one of those. And that was despite Pax's best efforts to ensure no BWB hookups under his watch!

[Stubby]

@Paxter that quick meet on the street was my first Aussie meeting IRL. It basically started the Aussie BWB. Good times.

And then we met @Ser Camaris.

[The Anti-Targ]

9 hours ago, karaddin said:

Watch out AT, when I met people off the board I met my wife and unless I'm misremembering you've already got one of those. And that was despite Pax's best efforts to ensure no BWB hookups under his watch!

I'm 99.9% sure I won't be changing my sexual orientation, so as long as it's me and @Ser Camaris I should be reasonably safe...though how sure am I of my sexual orientation is the next question?

Interesting side note, I also have cousins in Melbourne, though I haven't been in ages. Let's face it, what Kiwi doesn't have relatives in at least one Australian city?

Also interesting side note, I'm having coffee this week with a high school friend who I haven't seen since high school (1980s), which is also a kind of anxious moment. Maybe it's my year for doing things that give me a bit of social anxiety. He also works for Treasury, which has me a bit worried, so I will try to stay away from economics and politics for our first conversation in nearly 40 years.

Edited July 18, 2023 by The Anti-Targ

[The Anti-Targ]

Jeepers!

Reckoning for Australian Public Service in wake of Robodebt report (globalgovernmentforum.com)

Quote

The release of the Royal Commission report into the Robodebt scheme has exploded a hand grenade under Australian politics and government, identifying problems across the Australian Public Service that will need to be addressed

The report of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, published on 7 July 2023, has found significant failings across the Australian Public Service (APS), and by leading politicians, that allowed the initiative to be delivered and remain operational for over four years.

The report’s author Catherine Holmes stated that the commission brought into the open “an extraordinary saga” that illustrates “a myriad of ways that things can go wrong through venality, incompetence and cowardice”.

The Robodebt system was implemented by the Department of Human Services (DHS) and Department of Social Service (DSS) in 2015 under the Liberal-National government led by prime minister Tony Abbot. It was designed to recover overpayments in welfare benefits going back to 2010-11. The system relied upon an automated process called ‘income averaging’, which assessed people’s income over short periods and assumed that their earnings remained steady throughout the year.

This lead the government to unlawfully demand that the most vulnerable in Australian society pay back non-existent or inflated debts – causing significant hardship and possibly contributing to cases of suicide.

Has this got much play in the MSM in Aus? I got this from an email I regularly get from the organisation that posted the article.

[karaddin]

Yes it has, the section recommending prosecution for key figures is still sealed for the purposes of protecting the integrity of any future trials (ie not giving them grounds to claim the jury is tainted) but the charges may go up the ladder to Morrison himself.

It was blatantly wrong to anyone with even the most minimal understanding of how eligibility for welfare payments are assessed in this country, you cannot use an average of total income for a year to that in retrospect when it's assessed based on actual fortnightly earnings. Especially going back further than people even retain any records.

They pushed it ahead with it, deliberately dropping the debt claim on people that actually challenged it in the court to try avoid having an actual ruling against it and it took lives.

[Skyrazer]

The last LNP govt was IMHO one of, if not the worst federal govt in our country's history and Robodebt was perhaps the worst thing they conceived which is saying something.

Ministers like Scomo, Roberts and Porter should honestly be serving jailtime over it along with top bureaucrats like Kathryn Campbell.

[The Anti-Targ]

The biggest crime of any politician in the last 20 years is one for which they will never be held to account: inaction on climate change. That's going to kill more people than any other abuse of the public trust. Even if they live to see what their hands have wrought they are likely to be insulated from personally experiencing the worst of it.

It would be good to see some of them held to account for these other crimes against humanity.

Edited July 25, 2023 by The Anti-Targ

[Zorral]

9 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

crimes against humanity

ButButButBuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt -- they didn't intend to commit crimes against humanity, so they shouldn't be called criminals and be made accountable and punished.

[Wall Flower]

16 hours ago, Skyrazer said:

The last LNP govt was IMHO one of, if not the worst federal govt in our country's history and Robodebt was perhaps the worst thing they conceived which is saying something.

Ministers like Scomo, Roberts and Porter should honestly be serving jailtime over it along with top bureaucrats like Kathryn Campbell.

Unquestionably the worst I've seen. Not really a government but a collection of rorters, grifters, liars and incompetents masquerading as a government.

[The Anti-Targ]

Yet, in the grand scheme of things how much better is this one really shaping up to be?

Someone else's turn to start a new thread soon.

[Impmk2]

15 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Yet, in the grand scheme of things how much better is this one really shaping up to be?

Without a doubt much?

I mean if we're comparing to 2013/14 (the first year the LNP back was back in office) we had decisions that completely gutted the public service, a budget designed to actively redistribute money upwards and the repeal of the carbon tax. That's without even mentioning the later random stupidities (knighthoods, prince phillip), leadership turmoils, infighting over the energy transition (see leadership turmoils), or outright illegal schemes (ie robodebt).

The current government is just extremely unambitious and status quo. Part of that is the economic circumstance, part of that is being scarred by making too big a target in 2019.

Edited July 26, 2023 by Impmk2